Zimbabwe's child cadets paraded with guns in Harare on Sunday as the country celebrated the 30th anniversary of its independence from Britain.

Zimbabwean child cadets on parade during the celebrations of 30 years of independence from Britain

9:27PM BST 18 Apr 2010

President Robert Mugabe joined thousands at the National Sports Stadium, where he inspected a guard of honour before giving a keynote speech.

Mr Mugabe issued a rare appeal for an end to politically-driven violence, saying: "As Zimbabweans, we need to foster an environment of tolerance and treating each other with dignity and respect irrespective of age, gender, race, ethnicity, tribe, political or religious affiliation."

Many people arrived in buses hired by government to ferry residents of poor suburbs to the festivities, while others walked to the Chinese-built stadium.

For the second year running, leaders of Zimbabwe's three main political parties attended the event, which had previously been dominated by Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.

Morgan Tsvangirai, the prime minister, and his deputy Arthur Mutambara, Mr Mugabe's partners in the troubled power-sharing government, were among notable dignitaries present.